Glass on Glass

"Glass on Glass" oil on canvas, 5x7"

I painted this the other night after a frustrating day of not being able to get out and paint. I've admired other painters handling of glass, so I thought I'd give it a try.

oops

I painted this at Mt Burdell open space reserve, and when I got home discovered that I had somehow smeared one section of the painting in bringing back to the car. (Look on the right where the grass meets the trees) I'm trying to decide whether I should try and recreate the section that got smeared, or go to my trusty table saw and simply change the size of the painting (yet another advantage of painting on wood panels). Comments?

Cropped in photoshop - this would make an odd size picture, so I'd need to make a custom frame.

In Memorium

Rudy
Loyal companion and friend
1994-2007

Green String Farm

"Green String Barn" oil on panel, 5x7"

"Cast Shadow" oil on panel, 5x7"

After painting pumpkins on Saturday, I went down the road to Green String Farm. I bought some just picked organic eggplant and string beans, and asked if I could set up to paint. The woman working the stand smiled said I was welcome go anywhere I wanted on the grounds. I met several of the folks who work there, and all were interested in what I was doing and very friendly. I focused on their barns, thinking I would do a painting of the hills when the sun got lower on the horizon. By the time I was half way through the second painting, it was so windy I was hanging onto my palette with one hand to keep it from blowing over and painting with the other. It was hard getting straight lines in those conditions, but I'm happy with the paintings, and when I got home cooked up some excellent eggplant. If you're in the Petaluma area, they have great produce and it's all $2 a pound. They've got a lot of beautiful heirloom tomatoes right now that I would have purchased if I wasn't still picking tomatoes from my garden. I'm certainly going back.

Pumpkins

"Pumpkin Farm", oil on panel, 5x7"

After a week of rainy weather and work responsibilities, I finally got out to paint on Saturday. I completed 6 paintings, and this was one of the first. I started out the day at the Adobe Pumpkin Farm in Petaluma. I've painted here before, but not in a long while, and the morning light was hazy and luminous. After all the rain, the ground was glutinous. I'd walk a few steps and have a couple inches of mud sticking to the bottoms of my shoes. They don't call it adobe for nothing!

Fenced In

"Fenced In", oil on canvas panel, 5x7"

This is the same barn that I painted in "Vertical", but painted from about 20 feet to the left of my first location. If I learned anything in this painting it was a reminder that sometimes to get a color right you have to adjust the color next to it.

Vertical

"Vertical" oil on panel, 8x10"

I've painted this barn before, but in the afternoon. (Look here if you want to see it.) I painted this one in the morning, and I'm really happy with it. Sometimes a painting just seems to come together on its own.

And for those interested in the technical side of painting, this painting is the first test of a new ground for my panels. It's a gesso formulated specifically for priming panels, and it's supposed to be more absorbent than a typical acrylic gesso. I usually adhere canvas to the panels, and then do an oil ground, which is nothing if not a labor of love. I was hoping to find a ground that's a little less labor intensive, but still has some of the properties of an oil ground. So far, I do like the properties of this gesso, although I'd hoped for a slightly more absorptive surface.

Cloud Study

"Cloud Study III", 5x7, oil on canvas panel, available at my Etsy store.

This is the second painting I did at Papa's Taverna, looking across the marsh to the hills and clouds beyond.

Riverbend

"Riverbend" oil on canvas panel, 5x7"

A few days ago we had some lovely clouds, and I spent the morning painting at Papa's Tavera, a restaurant that overlooks the Petaluma river and marsh. It was an ideal location, as there was a little outdoor table to rest things on, and I was shaded by the building. I'm not entirely happy with the water in this painting. With the clouds passing overhead it seemed to change color every time I looked at the river. But I'm very happy with the clouds.

Bucolic

"Bucolic", oil on canvas panel, 5x7", available at my Etsy store.

It was a herd of sheep resting in a field with the barns behind that first drew my attention to this location. But I when I pulled into the entrance to the sheep pasture so I could turn the car around and park, the sheep all jumped up in anticipation of a meal. So much for peaceful sheep. They spent the next half hour loudly expressing their dismay. Next time I paint here I'll use a different driveway to turn around!